Cyrus Mistry questions Tata Group’s performance
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, Mistry said the Tata Group had an adjusted net loss of ₹13,000 cr in 2019
Cyrus Mistry, who was unceremoniously removed as the chairman of Tata Sons alleging non-performance, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday said the Tata Group had an adjusted net loss of ₹13,000 crore in 2019—the worst in three decades.
In his reply to the Tatas’ petition challenging his reinstatement by the NCLAT last December, Mistry also demanded that group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata should reimburse all the expenses to Tata Sons since his departure in December 2012.
In early January, the Tatas challenged the 18 December 2019 order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in the SC, which had stayed the order. Then the apex court on 29 May began hearing on the case and asked all parties concerned to submit their replies within four weeks. The Mistry family firms filed replies in response to Tatas’ affidavits on Friday. PTI has seen the copy of the same.
Mistry was unceremoniously removed as the chairman of Tata Sons on 24 October 2016 in a boardroom coup, offering no reason. But later in select press statements the group had claimed that Mistry was removed primarily for his non-performance and claimed that Tata Sons was in loss under his watch.
But, according to Mistry, the loss numbers were arrived at by excluding the huge dividend that the group cash-cow TCS was paying, which was averaging at over 85% annually.
“The Tatas had sought to exclude the dividends from TCS to arrive at operating profit in a bid to discredit my performance. Applying the same yardstick, the adjusted profit after tax (excluding profit from TCS) stood at a negative ₹13,000 crore in 2019 for the Tata Group," Mistry said in his replies to the SC.
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